Forum - View topicWhat Has Been Your Experience With Paid Downloads?
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RedSwirl
 Posts: 344 |
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After looking around I've noticed that you can download anime online legally for some pretty decent prices compared to buying on DVD. I was wondering if anyone found these downloads worth it.
I've found that the main stores doing this are Direct2Drive (a site that mainly sells PC games), iTunes, and Playstation Network. The general going price seems to be $1.99 an episode (in DVD resolution) with seasons generally being between $40 and $50 (some on iTunes are as low as $15, you can't get seasons on PSN). The only physical thing that matches that (no including sales) is those Anime Legends sets Bandai has been putting out. iTunes seems to have the smallest selection without even a dedicated anime section, and what's there is hard to browse as even clicking on anime picks won't bring up everything. If you search Macross Plus you can get all of it there for $7. Direct2Drive and PSN have shows like Astro Boy, Desert Punk, Gunslinger Girl, School Rumble, Samurai Seven, Mushi-Shi, and like 20 other shows. PSN has an exclusive show from Bones (and the guys who did Full Metal Alchemist) called Xam'd Lost Memories. According to this thread it's really good. It's the only anime any of these places carries in HD and it's the only full series I've seen available anywhere in 1080p. Don't know what DRM is like on the different networks. I know that once you get something off of PSN you can't ever re-download it. I'm also not sure on the dub/sub situation. It would be safe to assume that they all carry dubs or possibly dual audio. Has anybody here found these good enough to use as secondary of even tertiary sources for anime? |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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I've seen some of the free-samples that FUNi had for different shows (Basilisk, Witchblade, Moonphase, some others) and they were okay, maybe a little too dark and some interlacing issues. The main problem is you're only getting the dub usually so it's not a replacement for DVDs at all. You're pretty much owning the product to the same degree as downloading it illegally, the only major difference is where you got it from.
The other issue is that it's always a fixed price point at $1.99, which sometimes you can get the whole DVD for far cheaper per episode, what you're really paying for in the end is the convenience I suppose. I'd say they're only really good if you don't ever want to own DVDs, don't mind dub-only, and are probably have a busy schedule. Otherwise, it might be a good legal way to try and sample shows without wasting the money to blind buy DVDs. |
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wandering-dreamer
 Posts: 1733 |
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I've gotten a few anime episodes on itunes, and my complaint is that they are really too small. I tried going full screen on my computer and the image turned very messy and low-res looking. I much prefer to buy DVDs since they have more stuff, better quality, and I don't know if itunes lets you burn DVDs of items bought there.
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